CASH COMMENTARY FOR JUNE 20th, 2024 (for Tom June 26th)

                                                                   CASH MICHAELS

                                    THE EVIL THAT LURKS…

                  by Cash Michaels

It’s amazing but true.

As much as I want to stop writing about Convicted Orange Man and the Band, I can’t help it.

Virtually every story I see these days involving some aspect of the Republican Party details, without exception, how members of the Grand Old Party are fiendishly up to no good.

And it shouldn’t be this way. Americans and North Carolinians certainly deserve a decent, fully functioning two-party system. One that gives us definitive, yet hopeful public policy choices that seek to make life in this nation better for every citizen.

Instead, we have one political party that’s limping along trying to be everybody’s friend, and getting kicked in the teeth in the process, and we have a second political party that many say is so beholden to a power hungry, deranged, convicted felon, that the only platform it has is whatever he says it is.

By now you’ve guessed which are the Democrats and which are the Republicans.

Now I’m always conscious of the rhetorical trap of folks thinking I believe the Democratic Party to be squeaky clean, while the Republican Party is beyond dirty, filthy rotten. Thus, my constant disclaimer that Democrats are not squeaky clean, but only seem that way because Republicans are so dirty, filthy and rotten.

Better now? I mean, I really don’t want to be misunderstood.

Yes, there are a couple of Democrats who, as we speak, are facing serious trouble with the law for foolishness of their own alleged making, to be sure. The names Sen. Menendez and Rep. Cuellar come to mind. Add those to Hunter Biden’s recent legal escapades, and you have more than enough evidence that some folks in the donkey party can walk the wrong path too.

But you don’t hear or see other Democrats bending over backwards to burn the party down on their behalf.

Republicans, on the other hand, are so desperate and twisted to win the White House and Congress back for Trump, they have done and said everything except send cookies home to Mother Russia. And that’s what makes them so evil. They’re willingness to whitewash what they know is corrupt behavior, just to sell themselves bullcrap-cheap for power.

And Republicans don’t care whether you see what they’re doing or not.

Take recently, when Republicans in the GOP-led NC House voted to ratify a perverted bill that was originally supposed to be dealing with wearing masks in public, but ended up slipping in a dark money campaign finance change, all in a effort to attract millions for Mark Robinson’s culture warrior gubernatorial bid.

And not one of them had the unmitigated guts to admit what they were really doing, or why.

Or this business about changing the rules governing public records as it relates to how state lawmakers handle them. Apparently, even though your tax dollars pay for those public records, and pay the salaries of the publicly elected officials who handle them, Republican state lawmakers have now decided they can do anything they damn well please with those public records, including burn them, sell them, or hide them. If they don’t want you to see any notes or correspondence pertaining to how a bill was passed or not passed, hey John Q citizen, you’re out of freakin’ luck.

What about Trump’s promise to exact revenge on various people if he’s elected to a second term? And one of his top lieutenants, Russell Vought, former head of the Office of Management and Budget? MSNBC columnist Hayes Brown says Vought, “…displays a combination of MAGA zealotry and familiarity with Washington’s workings that makes him a uniquely dangerous figure for the future of the country.”

And I thought we only had to worry about Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller.

Oh there’s much, much more I could cite as examples of Republicans here and in the Washington, D.C. swamp who have simply lost their minds with power and think they could boss even the Almighty around if given the chance.

Anyone truly believe Marjorie Taylor Greene keeps her warped marbles and twisted loose screws in order on any given day? Dan Bishop? Michele Morrow? Mark Robinson? Donald Duck?

And what the hell is Lara Trump, daughter-in-law to convicted creepo Donald, and co-chair of the National Republican Committee, talking about?

Homegirl (she’s from Wilmington) told folks at the Turning Point USA Convention in Detroit recently that the difference between Republicans and Democrats is, “We speak in truth and facts on this side. The other side is all emotion-based. Bring people back to the truth. Bring people back to the facts.”

This woman has real brass!

Imagine the nerve it takes to show yourself in public, and tell people with a straight face that the Republican Party, a political party that to this day, tries to convince people that the violent January 6th attempted overthrow of our government was really just a peaceful demonstration; or that the 2020 presidential election was stolen; or that Donald Trump is not a crook, convicted criminal, racist, pervert and rapist.

Folks, I’m sorry, but that kind of lying is not incidental. 

It’s evil, because the full intent of it is to gain more power at any cost. And in my book, that means there’s nothing Republicans won’t do or say to get what they want.

I find myself agreeing with Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who told MSNBC recently that Democrats had better stop hoping that Republicans come to their senses, and instead, “have to be willing to be as tough as Republicans” because there is too much at risk in the 2024 elections.

That translates into flipping Michelle Obama’s famous saying about, “When they go low, we go high.”

Hell, I love the former First Lady with all my heart and soul, but that won’t work with these vicious creatures. Instead, I agree with MSNBC’s Simone Sanders-Townsend and former RNC Chair Michael Steele - “When they go low, we go toe to toe.”

Damn it! I don’t know about you, but my family and people have invested way too much in the building of this nation just to sit back and watch some deranged Hitler wannabes run roughshod over the government many a brave man and woman have fought and died to establish and protect.

Mind you, it’s not perfect by a long shot, but compared to what Trump and that crazy bunch of Nazis he’s leading plan to do if he wins or loses the election, what we have today is something I’d certainly prefer to keep until we get it right.

All what I’ve written is dangerous, but true. In four months, all hell could break loose, all because the Republican Party has lost its mind and patriotism.

The evil that lurks is ever present in our politics, governance, and in our lives. I sincerely pray for each and everyone of us, and our country.

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THE CASH STUFF FOR JUNE 20TH, 2024

                                                         VICE PRES. KAMALA HARRIS

IS VP HARRIS PRES. BIDEN’S

“SECRET WEAPON” IN NC?

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris made her fifth visit to North Carolina this year, and thirteenth to the state since taking office in 2021. The occasion was an address on economic opportunity and advancement for African Americans, and the place was Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte.

“I believe very strongly that the accomplishments of our administration — such as creating 15 million new jobs [overall]; creating over 800,000 new manufacturing jobs; the historic low unemployment, particularly for the Black community, are very important. Critically important,” Harris said, with fellow Democrats Gov. Roy Cooper, Mayor Vi Lyles, and actor Michael Ealy, among others, in attendance.

Harris reminded the audience of the Biden - Harris Administration’s success thus far for the Black community - creating 2.6 million jobs for African Americans: overseeing the lowest Black unemployment rate in U.S. history; the fastest creation of black-owned businesses in thirty years; increasing wealth for Black families, and more federal contracts for minority-owned businesses.

“I’m very aware that, you know, we can do all this good stuff in Washington, D.C.,” Harris continued, “ but if it doesn’t hit the streets, it doesn’t matter.” 

There’s a reason why VP Harris, the first black woman ever to serve in the post, has made so many visits to the Tar Heel State, political observers say.

She’s proven to be effective in the Biden Administration’s outreach to North Carolina’s African American community in cities like Charlotte, Raleigh and Durham, three of the state’s largest cities with considerable African American communities.

And make no mistake, those observers note, if the Biden-Harris campaign intends to win North Carolina and its 16 Electoral College votes - one of six critical battleground states in the upcoming November 5th presidential election - then winning North Carolina’s loyal Black Democratic voting base will be key.

If that happens, it would be the first time since Barack Obama, the last Democrat to win the state, did so in 2008.

Several weeks ago, the Biden -Harris Campaign launched “Black Voters for Biden - Harris", which, according to National Public Radio, is described by the campaign as “…a summer of mobilization, to earn votes and not take them for granted.”

That effort is hoping to maximize Black voter turnout in rural counties, where African Americans tend to be as conservative as their white counterparts. The Biden - Harris campaign is also praying that a significant number of Black voters don’t sit out this election, or worse yet, vote for Trump, as some press reports are predicting.

Per recent polls, just five months until Election Day, show Republican former Pres. Donald Trump currently leads Pres. Biden by at least five points statewide, according to East Carolina University’s Center for Survey Research. Whether that is enough time to energize North Carolina’s African-American vote - even with a polarizing governor’s race between a controversial Black Republican and a white Jewish Democrat leading the ballot - is yet to be seen.

Democratic organizers are hoping fresh efforts to turnout the Black vote; in concert with new get-out-the-vote efforts in the state’s conservative rural areas; population growth in North Carolina’s bluest counties and hopes that the Republican Party’s top of the ticket “bombthrowing” conservative culture warrior candidates will turn off many North Carolina voters, will be the keys to victory in November.

Trump narrowly won the state in 2020 by 75,000 votes.

According to a survey by Politico/Morning Consult, Harris has a 67 percent favorability rating nationally with Black voters, compared to 63 percent for her boss, Pres. Biden.

Per North Carolina, VP Harris has helped open at least one of ten Biden-Harris campaign field offices across the state, while the Trump campaign has yet to open its first. 

“Elections matter,” Harris told supporters in Charlotte last March. “Organizing matters. Showing up matters. Remembering the strength and power of our voice matters.”

“She’s one of the administration’s best spokespeople to the Black community,” Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons, who once served as Harris’s communications director, told The Hill. “The president has been making the case to the Black community as well, but obviously the VP has a different kind of appeal.” 

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HOW LEGISLATIVE REPUBLICANS

ARE HELPING MARK ROBINSON

WIN THE RACE FOR GOVERNOR

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

If he hasn’t done so by the time you read this story, Gov. Roy Cooper is soon expected to veto House Bill 237, that was ratified by the state House last week, which, among other things, amended “…campaign finance laws regarding federal political committees and political organizations”

In simpler language, according to many election campaign observers, HB 237 changed the rules for raising money in the middle of the 2024 race for governor to help Republican Mark Robinson.

It’s no secret that the NC Republican Party has been looking for ways to match the impressive $19 million campaign first quarter war chest of Democratic gubernatorial rival Josh Stein.

It’s one of the reasons why the Stein campaign has been able to buy tons of television advertising time slamming Robinson on his stands against a woman’s right to choose. 

Robinson has not been able to respond with his own television ads.

According to published reports, Robinson, the black Republican Lt. Governor, has only been able to raise $11 million. Part of the problem has been, purportedly, that many of the big billionaire donors to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign don’t want to be known to have contributed to Robinson, who has a documented history of posting and saying bigoted remarks about LBGTQ+ people, Jews, Blacks and others

The Republican-led state House on June 11th, over the strenuous objections of their Democratic colleagues, passed HB 237, which originally was only supposed to deal with the legality of mask wearing in North Carolina.

But after a conference with Senate conferees, the campaign finance language was added to the measure, passed by Senate Republicans on June 6th, and then House Republicans last week.

In effect, hard to trace so-called “dark money’ can now be funneled into Robinson’s campaign from out-of-state donors through various channels. Robinson’s war chest could now explode by tens of millions of dollars, and election observers say one would be hard pressed to figure out where the money actually came from.

Needless to say, Democrats were not pleased with the Trojan Horse aspect of the bill, which now can become law if the legislature’s Republican supermajority overcomes an expected veto from Governor Cooper.

Bob Hall, a nonpartisan election observer and former executive director of Democracy NC wrote, “ HB 237 comes to [Mark Robinson’s] rescue by legalizing a money laundering scheme. An individual can give, say, $500,000 to a federal 527 committee (the Republican Governors Association is one), and it can then donate $500,000 to an APC or a North Carolina party in its own name, without revealing the money’s true source. This will help Robinson’s campaign solicit donations from super-rich donors who don’t want to be publicly tied to his rhetoric.”

Hall continued. “It also allows a legislative leader like Senator Phil Berger to funnel big money from, say, gambling donors through a 527 into his APC to benefit GOP candidates. A partisan arms race in creating 527s and laundering money could result.”

Again, Gov. Cooper has already indicated that he doesn’t like this bill, and is expected to veto it before its ten-day deadline.

Then it would be up to Republicans in both houses of the NC General Assembly to attempt to override the governor’s veto once all members are present and accounted for.

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THE CASH STUFF FOR JUNE 13, 2024

 ATTENTION EDITORS/PUBLISHERS - North Carolina CENTRAL UNIVERSITY NOW HAS A NEW CHANCELLOR. PLEASE GO TO THE NCCU WEBSITE FOR A PRESS RELEASE ABOUT HER.

Cash

GOP-LED HOUSE PASSES 

NEW MASK BILL CRITICS

SAY STILL LACKS PROTECTION

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

The Republican majority state House on Tuesday passed House Bill 237, the “Unmasking Mobs and Criminals Act,” 69 to 43, despite protests that it offered little protections for medical patients who are required to were medical masks to protect themselves from contracting contagious diseases.

The bill was also inexplicably mixed with a provision allowing so-called “dark money” from unnamed sources into political campaigns.

House Democrats debating the bill opined that one issue had nothing to do with the other, yet were joined for the sake of election year politics.

Senate Republicans passed a compromise version of HB 237 last week after House Republicans initially rejected a Senate version that removed the COID pandemic public mask wearing exemption. Both houses conferred on the new version which passed Tuesday, despite there being new problems with the bill.

The new HB 237 mandates that only a medical or surgical grade mask for the purpose of “preventing the spread of contagious disease.” But what if a patient needs to wear a medical mask for the specific purpose of  protecting themselves from catching a contagious disease, many House Democrats asked?

The new language doesn’t say.

The new compromise also says a person wearing a medical mask “…shall remove the mask upon request by a law enforcement officer or temporarily remove the mask upon request by the owner or occupant of public or private property where the wearer is present to allow for identification of the wearer.”

So beyond a police officer, anyone can legally request of a medical patient to remove their medical mask for the purpose of identification.

House Democrats warned that that provision will cause constitution issues going forward.

In terms of punishment, the new compromise HB237 states, “If a person is convicted of a misdemeanor or felony and it is found as provided in this section that the person wore a mask or other clothing or device that concealed or attempted to conceal the person's identity at the time of the offense, then the person is guilty of a misdemeanor or felony that is one class higher than the underlying misdemeanor or felony for which the person was convicted. Notwithstanding any provision of this Article to the contrary, the court shall impose a sentence of imprisonment for a person convicted of an offense enhanced under this section if, after enhancement, the class of offense and prior record level permit active punishment as a sentence disposition.” 

Observers, like the News and Observer editorial section, noted, “ It appears to be — at least in part — a crackdown on protesters who often wear masks or other face coverings to protect their identity at demonstrations. The bill also increases penalties for those who wear a mask while committing a crime, which means a protester arrested for vandalism or trespassing could potentially receive a harsher sentence simply because they were wearing a mask. The original bill was uncomfortably ambiguous, despite the fact that Republicans claimed it was not intended to punish anyone who wears a mask for the sake of their health. This new version is still far too vague. Besides, do they really think that this change will prevent someone from wearing a mask while committing crimes? If someone is already breaking the law, it seems unreasonable to think that they wouldn’t just break another one, too.”

The new mask law now goes to Gov. Cooper either for his signature or veto.

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                                              DURHAM MAYOR LEONARDO WILLIAMS

                                               (photo by Rob Schofield)

IS BLACK VOTER SUPPORT FOR

BIDEN-HARRIS SLIPPING? NC

BLACK MAYORS HOPE NOT

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

Amid reports that the Biden-Harris campaign is “hemorrhaging” Black voter support nationally, African-American mayors from across North Carolina  came together last Saturday in Durham to counter those reports.

Meanwhile, Republican Party operatives are reportedly helping independent presidential candidate Dr. Cornel West get on the North Carolina ballot, according to NBC News, in hopes of syphoning off black and youth support from President Biden’s reelection campaign.

In addition to that, South Carolina U.S. Senator Tim Scott, purportedly on the short list of potential vice presidential running mates for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, has announced a $14.3 million Black voter outreach program for battleground states, including North Carolina, for the Trump campaign.

Fellow South Carolinian Rep. James Clyburn (D), however, says that he discounts reports of Black voters, especially Black males, being drawn to voting for Trump in any appreciable numbers.

There is little question that the Pres. Joe Biden-Vice Pres. Kamala Harris reelection campaign is taking reports of the Trump campaign making considerable inroads with African-American voters seriously.

National polls conducted in May by The New York Times, Siena College and the Philadelphia Inquirer show that former President Trump is now leading  in five of the six battleground states Biden won back in 2020.

Especially concerning for the Biden-Harris campaign in those polls is a dramatic drop in Pres. Biden’s standing with Black voters 63% to Trump's 23%, with Trump now garnering over 20% of African-American support.

In 2020, Trump earned 12% of the Black vote, which was deemed high at that time. If Trump maintains, or increases his over 20% standing with Black voter support, it would be the highest that any Republican presidential candidate has received in decades.

Black Republican Congressman Wesley Hunt (R-TX), who is traveling with Florida Black Republican Congressman Byron Donalds (R-FLA) on tour to key cities in battleground states, which will include Charlotte in a few weeks, told Fox News recently that “…if President Trump is able to attain between 25 and 30% of the Black male vote, then Joe Biden cannot win.”

To assist that cause, on June 6th, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) announced that the Great Opportunity Political Action Committee has committed to Black voter outreach for Trump, involving advertising and digital marketing campaigns, as well as research and analytics targeting African-Americans.

"If the Black voters do two things, some stay home and some come to the right, there is no way to fill that hole," Scott told United Press International. "So the coalition that is necessary for the Democrats to have success, period, it's not just Black and Hispanic. It's specifically Black in the battleground states where they have to be successful."

Now comes evidence that Republican operatives, in order to give progressive Black Democrats at least one other candidate to consider besides Biden, are in North Carolina, getting petition signatures at GOP events to have independent presidential candidate Dr. Cornel West, placed on the November ballot.

        NBC News reported last week that “tens of thousands have been gathered on behalf of the famed left-wing academic in key states thanks to self-organized grassroots volunteers — and some help from outside operatives tied to a Republican consulting firm.”

The NBC report continue, “In North Carolina, for example, a prominent Republican activist was spotted in April outside a Trump rally gathering signatures for West, telling rallygoers it "helps take away votes from Joe Biden."

Based on internal emails, apparently neither Dr. West nor anyone with his campaign knew anything about the effort, let alone approved of it. One Democratic strategist called the scheme “ “beyond fishy.”

African-American mayors of cities from across North Carolina came together Saturday to insist that any talk of the Biden Administration ignoring the African-American community was without foundation, and that it deserved the Black vote. 

Led by Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams, six African-American mayors, along with two African-American mayor pro terms, gathered in Durham to say Biden policies and list of accomplishments have greatly benefited the Black community in their cities and towns.

“There’s too much on the line to sit this out, Durham Mayor William’s cautioned.

Even the Black mayor of Savannah, Georgia, Van Johnson, was present, to remind reporters of some of Pres. Biden and Vice Pres. Kamala Harris’s policy accomplishments for the African-American community, which include

investing over $7 billion in funding for HBCUs (historically Black Colleges and Universities) - more than any other president; Biden’s economy adding 14.8 million jobs over the first three years of his term, again, more than any president in U.S. history, meaning that Black unemployment is currently 5.3%, after hitting 4.7% last year, the lowest in American history; wages having kept pace with inflation, which is now leveling off; and violent crime having fallen across the country by 11.8%.

Biden-Harris is also helping Black businesses secure the investment capital they need for the fastest rate of Black small business startups in thirty years; has cut the number of Black children living in poverty; and has created 2.6 million jobs for Black workers.

Other Black NC mayors, like Fayettville’s Mitch Colvin and Ahoskie’s Weyling White, talked about how getting what they need for their cities from the Biden White House versus the Trump White House was like night and day.

Mayor Colvin said dealing with the Trump people was always “political” rather than based on need or merit.

Colvin warned that the Black community would not fare well under a second Trump administration.

Many of the North Carolina Black mayors agreed that Trump, now a convicted felon, had a “racist agenda” planned for his second term if elected.

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